Balser, Ewald

(1898-1978)

   Actor. Balser was trained as a construction tradesman, but upon his release from military duty at age 20 he decided to start auditioning for acting jobs. By 1920 he was working regularly in Basel. He successfully auditioned for Louise Dumont in Düsseldorf both to work for her and to study under her tutelage. By 1928 Balser was a regular member of the Burgtheater company in Vienna. Until 1944 he alternated between engagements at the Burg and in Berlin with Heinz Hilpert at the Deutsches Theater.

   In Berlin, critics praised Balser's Teutonic Petruchio, and Joseph Goebbels liked his Tellheim in the 1940 film Das Fräulein von Barnhelm (The Barnhelm Girl, adapted from Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's 1762 comedy Minna von Barnhelm). Balser won a great deal of unspoken admiration while playing Marquis Posa in Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos in 1940 when from the stage of the Deutsches Theater he looked directly at Goebbels (sitting in a nearby box seat) and punctuated the line "Geben Sie Gedankenfreiheit!" (Grant freedom of thought!), provoking a cascade of applause from the audience.

   In Vienna, Balser played a wide range of roles, from Hamlet to Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, from Wallenstein to Egmont in classical roles. In modern plays, his Hellmer in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House was widely praised, as was his General Harras in Carl Zuckmayer's Des Teufels General (The Devil's General) in 1948. Though he was born in the Rhineland, Balser became a confirmed Viennese by the 1930s and the city, as well as Austria, showered him with official honors. Among them was the Ring of Honor from the city of Vienna, along with its Kainz Medallion; Austria made him a member of its Grand Service Order for his artistic contributions to the republic.